Of Gods
by kateydidnt
Summary: Immediately post Journey's End. The Doctor has a very strange visitor in the TARDIS. Crossover with Star Trek: TNG


He was trying not to dwell on it. But all he could see was Donna's face, hear her begging him not to do what she knew was the only thing that would keep her alive. He wasn't even sure he had done the right thing, but he knew, after everything that had happened that day he couldn't just let her die in his arms, her brain burning out.

So he'd taken them, all the memories--all their travels, the song of the Ood, saving the Earth from the Sontarans and the Racnoss Empress, saving other worlds and finally, saving the entirety of reality. _All of reality._And she could never remember.

Resolutely he punched in a new destination. He was leaving here.

_Running, always running, because he dare not go back._ Just like Davros had said.

Jack had understood what he'd had to do and promised to keep an eye on Donna.

"Oh, having a pity party, are we?"

"What?" the Doctor whipped around to find a man perched on one of the rails around the TARDIS console. He had dark hair and a flat nose and had a very annoying patronizing look on his face.

"What?" the Doctor demanded again.

"Oh, spare me your surprise." the visitor rolled his eyes.

"But, you shouldn't be here! Its impossible!" It was impossible to transport to the TARDIS when it was in the vortex itself. Or it should have been anyway.

"Well, obviously not, as I _am_ here. Really, Doctor, with everything you've seen, you ought to realize by now that there is very little that is truly impossible. There are improbable and difficult things, but impossible things? There aren't many."

"Who are you?" the Doctor demanded.

"Oh, don't like the tables turned do you? Someone else being all mysterious and knowledgeable."

The Doctor had a very annoyed look on his face. Which just made the visitor laugh. "Oh, you're as much fun as Jean Luc, and here I thought only humans could be so amusing."

The Doctor finally rolled his eyes and sighed. "Who are you?" he finally asked in a somewhat calmer tone. Whoever this was hadn't done anything but talk so far and the Doctor didn't have the energy or motivation to to try and figure it out on his own right now.

"I'm Q. I was curious about you so I decided to meet you finally."

Well, that answer was as enlightening as a black hole.

"Well, you aren't human, what species are you?"

"Q."

"But I thought that was your name."

"It is."

The Doctor stared at him for a bit then shook his head, "Creative lot, you Q are, aren't you?"

Q gave a smug little smile, "I knew I'd like you."

It occurred to the Doctor that Q possibly wasn't entirely sane. He sat down on the captain's chair and spoke, "Well, I now know your name and species, but amazingly I still have no idea who you are."

"Of course not, we haven't even been here before."

"Is this really what people feel like when they meet me for the first time?" the Doctor interjected in frustration.

"Probably. The Q exist in another dimensional universe, and very few ever leave, but realities collapsing in caught our attention. Fascinating solution, by the way, but did you really have to solve it all yourself? The only really interesting thing to happen in a trillion years and we didn't even get to play a part." Q pouted.

The Doctor stared at him. "What?" his old standby was back.

Q sighed, "Once upon a time in another universe there was a race of ape descendants who solved the Skasos Paradigm and then they immediately rewrote history so that they had always known."

"You are kidding me."

Q snapped his fingers and suddenly the two of them were standing in a very familiar long gone place: the Citadel of Gallifrey itself. The Doctor gasped, collapsing to his knees, "But this is all gone! It was destroyed and the entire war, Gallifrey's entire _existence_ is time-locked."

"For you, for anyone in a million universes, but not for me." Q's voice had a definite note of superiority in it.

The Doctor stared at the towers, at the shining copper moon of Pazithi Gallifreya overhead. He couldn't draw his eyes away from it but he spoke in a softer voice, "Why are you here, Q? What is your purpose?"

"Like I said, you interest me." In a blink they were back in the TARDIS.


End file.
